


The Adventures of Otabear

by malachibi



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 23:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9520112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malachibi/pseuds/malachibi
Summary: Yuri steals Otabek's bear after the Grand Prix Finals one year; Otabek steals it back the next year. For some reason, it becomes A Thing.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I have never used Instagram in my life, so if I messed something up here, let me know.

Yuri Plisetsky is sixteen years old when he knowingly commits his first crime. 

To be fair, Otabek had invited him over, and Otabek had left him alone in his hotel room to go talk to his coach and said Yuri could just let himself out as long as the door locked behind him, and… 

Well, the bear is sitting on top of the TV, staring at him, as if it's daring him to pick it up. 

Yuri picks it up, and then Yuri leaves the room. 

He Snapchats a picture of him and the bear to both Otabek and his story before he even leaves the hotel, overcome with a sudden fear that his friend will panic when he can't find it. 

He doesn't caption it; just leaves it up there, and on his way to the airport, his phone makes an alert noise. 

_Otabek Altin replayed your Snap!_

_Otabek Altin took a screenshot of your Snap!_

Yuri stares at his phone for a moment, startled. 

Beka never screenshots his Snapchats - it's dangerous enough to even have Snapchat as a professional athlete, much less to have saved pictures from Snapchat.

Well, at least Otabek knows where his bear is, he decides. 

\--

Over the next few months, Otabear features in a number of Snapchats and even a few Instagram posts. 

Otabek not only screenshots each and every Snap with the bear in it, but he also likes and comments on every Instagram post. 

Beka, who never comments on anything else; who never likes anything; who never does anything with Snapchat besides view Snaps. 

Honestly, it's kind of driving Yuri up the wall. 

Is Otabek mad at him for taking the bear? He hasn't said anything about it. They've been texting and emailing back and forth like normal. 

When he visits his grandfather, he brings the bear with him to Moscow. 

Only because Otabear needs its picture taken with the sights of Moscow, he tells himself. Not because he's gotten really attached to this bear. 

"I thought you got cats from your fans," his grandfather muses when he pokes his head into Yuri's room and sees the bear in a place of honor on Yuri's bed. 

"I do," Yuri agrees, and luckily his grandpa leaves it at that. 

He does end up posting a picture to both Snapchat and to Instagram, and Otabek does his now-usual routine of saving his Snap, liking his post, and then commenting. 

_Cute,_ Otabek says, and Yuri has no clue if he's talking about him or the bear. 

\--

Yuri takes a picture of him and Otabear at Nationals, and Otabek says _Good luck._

He takes a picture at the European Championships, and gets _Davai_ in response. 

Probably he's actually posting pictures now just for Otabek's reaction, but he's not letting himself think about that too hard. 

At Worlds, Otabek's out on a minor injury, and so Yuri posts a picture with the caption _Wishing you were here_ with the bear wearing Yuri's own silver medal. 

He gets the alerts before he can even finish pulling on his jacket, and he smiles down at his phone without even thinking. 

_I'm coming for your medal next year._

_I look forward to it,_ Yuri replies, and he does. 

From there, it's the off-season, and he doesn't have as many excuses to take pictures of Otabear out and about when they're just in the same three locations. 

Otabear at home. Otabear at the rink. Otabear at the studio. 

It doesn't completely stop him, though. He still takes pictures, because Otabek keeps replying to him and he likes the attention. 

He tries to keep it varied, at least - he sends pictures of his walk home, or of the new outfit he's having commissioned for his short program, or of the field trip Mila takes him on. 

Otabek continues to reply faithfully to every photo he posts with the bear, though he still doesn't react at all to the multitudes of pictures Yuri posts without Otabear. 

Probably Otabek will want it back when they meet up again, which is why a small part of Yuri is relieved when he realizes they've been seeded to different events. 

On one hand, he doesn't get to see Otabek until the finals. 

On the other hand, he gets to keep the bear. 

It's a decent trade-off, he decides, and hugs the bear closer. 

\--

He watches NHK live, even though he should probably be getting to bed, and he takes a couple screenshots of Otabek's routines, getting a sudden, horrible idea. 

The next day, he dashes down to the tailor who's making his outfits, and begs a few key scraps of fabric off of him. 

Everything else, he gets at the local fabric store, and then he escapes back home and brings up the screenshots. 

Time to get Otabear re-dressed. 

He doesn't let on in his pictures that Otabear has any new outfits; for one thing, his sewing definitely leaves something to be desired, and he doesn't want his fans noticing that there's something he can't do. 

For another thing, he wants it to be a surprise. 

He makes it through his own qualifier next, bagging gold with only a little bit of a struggle, and then heads home and makes sure to record Skate Canada so he can see Beka's routine again. 

It's a routine he'll need to beat; with Viktor and Chris retired, he's got Yuuri and Beka as his main competition this season. 

JJ would have been a threat too, had he not gone out on injury, but he's managed to be as annoying as ever while spamming social media with his recuperation. 

Otabek gets a gold medal at Skate Canada, narrowly beating out Guang Hong, and Yuri smiles. 

_See you at the finals,_ he snapchats, making sure it's only his face in the picture and not Otabear's. 

Otabek views it almost immediately, but doesn't save it, and he doesn't reply. 

That's okay. They'll get to talk in just a few short weeks, Yuri reminds himself, and heads to the rink to get to practicing. 

\--

Otabek snapchats a picture of himself in the lobby of the hotel, and Yuri switches to text immediately, sending the Kazakh man his room number and a bunch of exclamation marks. 

It's marked as read a few minutes later, but he gets no response. 

Still, he gets up and unlocks his door, and after a few minutes, someone knocks. 

"Come in!" he calls, and Beka does. 

"Long time no see," Otabek comments, and Yuri nods. 

"Yeah. Don't get injured again," he decides. "C'mon, I loaded up some videos for us to watch."

Otabek obligingly settles on his bed, and they spend a comfortable few hours curled up there together watching videos on Yuri's tablet before his phone starts to buzz. 

"Is it important?" Otabek wonders. 

"Yes," Yuri sighs, scowling at the text. "I have to go talk to Viktor. And we should probably go to sleep."

"I will in a moment; I need to gather my things," Beka decides. 

"That's fine; just shut the door behind you. I have my keycard," Yuri tells him, and heads out to see what Viktor wants. 

He's in the elevator before he realizes what he's done, but by then it's too late to turn back. 

\--

Sure enough, by the time Viktor's done reviewing the parts of his routine that will need special attention tomorrow and Yuri gets back to his room, Otabear has disappeared. 

In its place, though, is a cat with hair braided back just like Yuri does for his short program, and the cat is even wearing his short program outfit. 

It's even sitting on a tiny, neatly folded version of his free skate costume, clearly there to be changed into when necessary. 

It's cute, but Yuri scowls at it anyways, already missing the bear. 

_Hey asshole,_ he texts, _you forgot its free skate outfit._

There's no reply for a few minutes, and he goes to wash up and get ready for bed. 

Of course, his phone dings just as he's turned off the lights, and he grabs for his phone desperately. 

_Should have left it out, then. Bring it tomorrow for breakfast._

"I won't," Yuri says aloud, scowling at his phone, but he already knows that he will. 

Sighing, he double-checks the alarms on his phone, and then sets it aside and goes to sleep. 

\--

When he wakes up, there's a new notification from Instagram, and since it's from Otabek, he checks it immediately. 

It's a picture of Otabek with Otabear, still wearing the badly-sewn short program outfit. It doesn't seem to matter how bad the sewing is to Otabek, though; he's giving the bear the same fond half-smile he usually reserves for his sister, or cats, or Yuri. 

_He's had a few adventures in Russia, but I've successfully stolen him back home,_ the caption says. 

_dislike,_ Yuri comments, but taps twice on the picture anyways. 

He showers, dresses, and he's even started gathering what he'll need for the rink today when his phone chimes. 

_Breakfast in fifteen? I'll bring Yuracat's other set of clothes if you bring Otabear's free skate outfit._

Yuracat, Yuri thinks, looking over at the cat still perched on the little table in his room. Huh. 

_Sure,_ he replies, and gathers up the free skate outfit and the little jacket he'd cobbled together from bits of fabric. 

As he's about to head out the door, he hesitates, looking back. 

"Fine," he says aloud, and stomps back into his room long enough to grab the cat. 

\--

Otabek actually smiles, a real full smile, when he sees Yuri coming with Yuracat in his arms, and honestly that's enough to justify bringing the dumb cat. 

"What other clothes does it have?" Yuri demands, sitting down across from him. 

"Off-day clothes," Otabek explains, and produces miniature black pants, a lion tee, and a black hoodie. 

Yuri totally intends to look unimpressed, but the next moment finds him gathering up the clothes with an awed look on his face, admiring the tiny lion. 

"Where the hell did you learn how to sew?" he wonders. 

Otabek shrugs. "I didn't. I asked my little sister to make it for me. She's actually the one who suggested this kind of outfit, though I came up with the specifics."

"It's perfect," Yuri decides, tucking the whole outfit into the pocket of his hoodie. "But don't think that lets you off the hook! I want the bear back."

"It's my bear," Beka points out, completely straight-faced. 

"I've had it for a whole year," Yuri counters. 

"Because you stole it from my hotel room. Breakfast?" Otabek asks, and Yuri blinks, thrown temporarily. 

"Fine. I'll eat breakfast, but I'm not done!" he insists, and heads towards the breakfast bar. 

\--

As it turns out, Yuri is done. Otabek is unmoving on the fact that it's his bear and that he's keeping it, and so Yuri hands over the free skate outfit, scowling as Otabek examines the stitching on the jacket. 

He keeps Yuracat with him until it's his turn to go on the ice, and then passes it to Yakov because he doesn't trust Viktor with it, and then he skates his routine better than he's ever skated it before. 

He does nearly the same thing the next day, and ends up sandwiched between Otabek and Yuuri on the podium. 

"If I beat you at Worlds, can I have the bear back?" he murmurs out of the corner of his mouth. 

"If you can beat me," Otabek decides. 

Yuri resolves right then and there that he'll beat his own records for this program at Worlds, and he'll get that damn bear back. 

At least he has the cat to post pictures with on Instagram in the meantime. 

\--

To his surprise, Otabek starts actually using his Snapchat and his Instagram more often after the GPF. 

Unfortunately, most of the posts include Otabear, always with a caption tagging Yuri himself. 

_Otabear watching me practice so I can beat @yuri-plisetsky_

_@yuri-plisetsky made Otabear this nice jacket so he doesn't get too cold in Almaty._

_Otabear is excited for 4CC even though @yuri-plisetsky won't be there._

Well, two can play at that game. 

_Yuracat and I are way better than @otabek-altin,_ he posts, and _Yuracat says @otabek-altin won't know what hit him at Worlds._

Yuri's Angels are going nuts, of course, but as long as they're not bothering Beka, Yuri doesn't care. 

He's long since come to the conclusion that there's no controlling them, after all. 

Just like Otabek had done before, Yuri makes sure to save each Otabear snap, and he always likes the Insta posts even if he doesn't always have the chance to comment. 

They've got a good system going, which is why Yuri plans on throwing it into disarray once they get to Worlds. 

\--

Yuri doesn't even try to be subtle when he enters Beka's hotel room this time - he just picks Otabear up, replaces it with Yuracat, and tucks the bear up against his side as he settles on the bed. 

"What are we watching?" he wonders. 

Beka just looks at him for a long moment before deciding (correctly, Yuri would think) that it's not worth pushing. 

"I found a compilation of tigers playing in the wild," Beka tells him, and Yuri immediately moves closer, eyes already fixed on the older man's tablet. 

"Show me," he demands, and Otabek does. 

He leaves Worlds with Otabear and a silver medal, and Otabek goes home with bronze and Yuracat, and Yuri waits impatiently to see if he's going to post any pictures with this plushie. 

It takes a week, but then his phone pings with a Snapchat notification, and he checks it immediately. 

_Back to training, with Yuracat watching to make sure I'm doing it right,_ the caption says, and sure enough, there's Yuracat in its casual outfit, perched on the barrier next to Beka's coach. 

Not to be outdone, Yuri snapchats him the next day with Otabear at rinkside and Viktor happily posing with him. 

_I'm taking him back at the GPF,_ Otabek tells him through text.

 _You'd better give me Yuracat back, then,_ Yuri replies. 

_I will,_ Beka promises, and then sends him another snapchat of Yuracat with no caption this time. 

\--

After that, it just becomes a tradition - they trade plushies every time they're at a competition together, even if they see each other in person more frequently. 

Their collective fanbase seems to have no clue what to make of it, but according to Viktor, the general consensus is that both animals are cute. 

Beka learns to sew sometime during his off-season the next year, and the year after that they send pictures of their new costumes for the next season before they're revealed to anyone else. 

Yuri keeps whichever plush he has with him at rinkside for all his competitions, and when Viktor asks, he insists it's for good luck. 

If Otabek's at the same competition, he'll hold both plushies at rinkside with him, yelling out Davai! and waving one of Yuracat's paws. 

Yuri makes an effort to reciprocate, though it's Otabear's paw he waves when it's Beka out on the ice.

Of course, the posts on social media continue too, though they're a little less challenging than before. 

At least, to each other. 

_Yuracat thinks I'll beat @JJleroy!15 at 4CC, Otabek posts._  
yuri-plisetsky and 4786 people liked this  
JJleroy!15 I think @yuri-plisetsky is backing the wrong skater!! #winner #goldmedal #jjstyle 

_Otabear is looking forward to Worlds and going back to #Almaty #Otabear @otabek-altin  
otabek-altin and 20457 people liked this_

\--

The last touch to their new flat in Hasetsu is courtesy of Beka, who pulls Otabear out of his last box and sets him up on the headboard of their shared bed, right next to Yuracat. 

Yuri sighs, eyeing both of them. "Does this mean we have to stop stealing them at competitions?" he wonders. 

"No," Otabek decides, pushing him away lightly. "Go wash up; Viktor's expecting us both at the rink early tomorrow morning."

"Don't forget to bring them with us to the rink," Yuri says, even as he heads for their now-shared bathroom. "I skate better with Otabear judging me."

Otabek huffs out a laugh. "I won't," he promises, and as Yuri looks back, he can see Beka reaching out to pat Yuracat on the head with a fond smile. 


End file.
